802.11n: Buy Now, or Wait?

Share

802.11n: Buy Now, or Wait?

Wireless networking wonks this weekend failed to confirm a draft proposal for a new, super-fast version of Wi-Fi, spurring fresh criticism that a raft of products are being rushed out too early before the so-called 802.11n standard is finalized.

Major chipmakers including Atheros Communications and Broadcom have already put the draft technology into silicon chipsets, and wireless companies including Belkin, Linksys and Netgear are selling "draft n" routers and wireless cards.

But critics of the pre-802.11n products said this weekend's paltry 46 percent approval vote is powerful evidence that the draft is still too shaky to be the basis for commercial products. Airgo Networks, one of the few chipmakers that hasn't released an 802.11n draft chipset, pounced on the failed confirmation vote, noting that drafts require a 75 percent margin of approval to become finalized as a standard.

"It basically was crushed," said David Borison, Airgo's director of product marketing.

802.11n is a highly anticipated successor to today's Wi-Fi, promising a huge performance boost. The draft spec promises to deliver data rates up to 180 Mbps, which could make wired home networks unnecessary and should allow high-definition wireless video streaming – say from the computer in one room to the plasma TV in another.

At issue is whether the draft spec is far enough along that companies can make products that will provide that performance but still be compatible with each other and with older Wi-Fi equipment. Wireless maker D-Link had planned to release its own draft n products in April but pulled out because of performance and compatibility issues.

Airgo's Borison warned that the new 11n products could mess with current 11b and 11g networks by trying to transmit data on the same radio channels. "It will literally bring b/g networks to their knees," he said.

But companies that have released 11n products say Airgo is making a big deal out of nothing. "Everyone had already assumed that this would fail," said Bill McFarland, Atheros' chief technology officer, of the weekend vote. According to McFarland, drafts are rarely approved on the first vote because committee members tend to have many suggestions for improvements. But significant technical changes are unlikely to happen, he said, because they, too, require a 75 percent approval vote.

Bill Bunch, the director of product management at Broadcom, said it is common to produce chips based on a draft standard and then make final adjustments through software updates that customers can download. Broadcom did that with its first chips for the 802.11g standard, he said. But could the 802.11n standard change so drastically that the chips can't be upgraded?

"That possibility does exist," said Bunch.

The draft spec does not say how 11n products should work with older Wi-Fi equipment, but Atheros and Broadcom say they have implemented "good neighbor" policies to insure that their chips won't step on other networks.

So is the current 11n gear safe to buy?

Vivek Pathela, Netgear's marketing vice president, said performance and compatibility testing is going well, and so far he has been able to fix problems with software tweaks. Even so, he's careful to add a caveat.

"I cannot say that we can upgrade to something that we don't even have," he said.